The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

OF PENANCE AND CONFESSION. 325CHAPTER XIV.OF PENANCE AND CONFESSION.In baptism all sin is washed away, and more particularlythe guilt of original sin. For the remission of sins doneafter baptism, the Roman Catholic Church has invented thesacrament of penance. That mystic machinery by whichRome perfects men for heaven, without any trouble or painsof their own, is complete in all its parts. Holiness is conferredby one sacrament and maintained by another ; andthus a mutual benefit is conferred. The people are enrichedby the spiritual gifts of the Church, and the Church is amplyrecompensed and endowed with the temporal wealth ofthe people. " Penance is the channel through which theblood of Christ flows into the soul, and washes away thestains contracted after baptism,"* says the Catechism ofTrent. It might have added with equal truth, that it is amain channel by which the gold of the people flows into thetreasury of Rome, and repairs thehavoc which the luxuryand ambition of the clergy are daily making in thepossessionsof the Church.Penance Dens defines to be " a sacrament of the newlaw, by which those who have been baptized, but have falleninto sin, upon their contrition and confession obtain absolu-Cat. Rom. pars ii. cap. v. q. iz.